Has anyone seen Ryoma?
by Hugs and Blackberries
Summary: After Ryoma wins a match for his team, no one can find him! Momo notices the guy he beat isn't there either. Hm...This can't be good. Oneshot. Ryoma Momo friendship fic. Rated for minor violence and language.


I don't own Prince of Tennis

Has anyone seen Ryoma?

"Has anyone seen Ryoma?" Kikumaru asked, looking around for their smallest player. The others looked as well, but Ryoma was nowhere to be seen. The Seigaku tennis regulars were at a small tournament, more for practice then actual competition. They had just played against another school who they beat every time. They now had a forty-five minute break before their next set, and Ryoma was starting. But, where was he?

"His match starts in half an hour," said Fuji, looking at his watch, slightly worried. "Where could he have gone?"

"I don't know…" While the others talked among themselves, Momoshiro looked for the person his small companion had just played. He saw the rest of the other team, but Kento, who Ryoma had beaten easily and solidly, was not there. Momo got a bad feeling.

He left the group and walked toward the soda machines. No Ryoma. He looked behind the bathrooms and the sign-in building, but no Ryoma. Momo was getting more and more worried as he looked. After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, Momo stopped and thought. _If I was a sore loser, looking to take revenge on a freshman who just whooped my sorry ass, where would I go?_

Momo saw a clump of trees over in the distance, still on the tennis grounds, but off to the side away from everyone else. _Bingo._ Momo hurried over, hoping he was not too late.

When he was a few steps away from the trees, he heard a sneer, then the swing of a tennis racket, the sound of it hitting something, and then a grunt of pain. He peeked through the trees.

In the middle of the clearing stood Kento, holding his racket and looking very angry. Standing in front of him with dirt on his uniform, a bruise forming on his eye, and the imprint of a tennis racket wire on his cheek, was Ryoma. He was standing with his arms folded, looking coolly at the tall boy in front of him.

"Still cool now, punk? Are ya?" Kento yelled in Ryoma's face, spit flying from his mouth.

Ryoma reached up and wiped the spit off his cheek. He muttered something that Momo could not hear, but made Kento even madder.

"SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Kento raised his racket threateningly.

Ryoma said it.

With a roar of fury, Kento dropped the racket and then grabbed two fistfuls of the boy's shirt. He hauled Ryoma up to his face. Ryoma's feet dangled at least a foot in the air. Kento began shaking him, yelling, "HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE BETTER THEN ME! YOU'RE A FRESHMAN AND YOU SHOULD TREAT YOUR SUPERIORS WITH RESPECT YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!!"

Ryoma's head bobbled back and forth and his hat fell into the dirt. The boy, who had the whole time been staring Kento coolly in the eye, closed his eyes.

_That's enough._ Momo thought. He pushed through the trees and emerged in the clearing.

Kento looked up, anger all over his face. Ryoma turned his head to look and was surprised to see Momo standing there. When he turned his face, Momo saw a scratch running along one of Ryoma's cheekbones that he had missed before.

"We all get that you're a sore loser, so you can stop now, you jerk." Momo stood feet planted, arms crossed, facing Kento. They were about the same height; Kento was a little more slender then Momo, whose arms rippled with muscles.

"Get outta here! This doesn't concern you!" Then Kento noticed Momo's uniform. He smirked. "Ah, so you're his teammate! Come to fetch the baby, have you?" He shook Ryoma, whom he still held.

"I did beat you, remember, so if I'm a baby, then what does that make you?"

"Shut up!" Kento pulled back a fist and punched Ryoma right in the cheek, also letting go of his shirt, causing Ryoma to fall to the ground. Momo leapt at Kento, fists raised.

"Momo senpai, that's not necessary. You're just wasting your energy." Ryoma straightened and dusted off his clothes, then looked at his teammate, beating Kento up furiously, and ignoring Kento.

Momo, raised his fist and said, "Just one more punch. A asshole like him deserves it."

Ryoma shrugged. "Whatever."

Momo smirked evilly and commenced with beating the crap out of Kento. Then he remembered something. "Whoa! Ryoma," he looked at his watch. "Your match starts in five minutes!"

Ryoma's eyes widened and a frown appeared on his face. "We've gotta go."

Momo stood up, dusting off his hands. "Alright, let's go!" The two ran out of the clearing, leaving Kento a bruised and semi-conscious pulp.

As Momo and Ryoma ran, Momo looked over at his friend. "You okay?"

Ryoma didn't answer. Momo took that as meaning, 'yes, of course I'm fine.'

They ran for a minute in silence. "Did he corner you, or something?" Momo asked.

"Kind of. But it doesn't matter anymore."

"Where'd he find you?"

"Soda machine."

"Were you alone?"

Silence.

"Did anyone else see?"

Silence.

"Hello, are you listening to me?"

Momo was getting a little frustrated at his friend. He had, after all, just saved him from Kento; the least he could do was answer his questions!

They arrived at their team's bench with a minute to spare. When the others saw Ryoma's appearance, they bombarded him with questions.

"Hey, Ryoma, what happened?"

"What'd you do to your face?"

"Are you alright?"

He answered with a grunt, quickly gathering his things for the match. In a second, he walked out onto the pitch. The team, not having gotten any answers from Ryoma, turned to Momo.

"Momo, what happened to him?"

Momo folded his arms and watched Ryoma warm-up. "That Kento kid, who he just played? He cornered him by the soda machine, then dragged him over to a bunch of bushes and started beating him up."

Oishi looked shocked. His gaze also moved to Ryoma, watching him carefully.

"That bastard!" Yelled Kikumaru. "If I ever see him-."

"No need to worry, Eiji, I already took care of the revenge." Momo, puffed out his chest a little, feeling proud.

Eiji jumped to his feet. "Yeah, but I'm still gonna-."

"There's something wrong with Ryoma's wrist." They all stopped talking and turned to Inui.

After a few seconds of silence, Momo said, "What?"

"Watch. There's something wrong with his wrist." Inui leaned against the wall, arms folded, no emotion showing at all.

They all leaned forward, concentrating on their smallest player. Ryoma was bouncing a ball on his racket, eyes closed, concentrating.

"I don't see anything wrong," Eiji said after a minute.

"Keep watching." Tezuka also seemed to have noticed the problem.

Ryoma stopped bouncing the ball. He got into his serve stance, then started taking practice swings. The team saw immediately that he winced when he swung, pain evident in his face. He tried swinging a little slower, but the pain continued. He switched to his other hand and continued his warm-up, holding his injured wrist carefully at his side.

"Can he play, with his wrist like that?" Fuji asked.

"He'll just deny the pain if we ask him about it," Inui said flatly. Eiji and Fuji exchanged a look, then shook hands, as though agreeing to a bet.

They sat in silence for a minute, all thinking. But before they could decide whether to keep him in or not, the moderator blew the whistle and the match began.

It was a tough match, both for Ryoma playing and the team watching. Ryoma was doing fine, but there was constant tension in his face, as though he was continuously in pain. He let a few points be scored on him that normally he would have stopped. He seemed to be concentrating hard on keeping his wrist secure, so as not to hurt it more.

The rest of the team was also tense, both because this was an important match, and because they were concerned about their teammate.

After half and hour, Momo could not take the tension and went to get a soda. At the juice machines, a girl came up to him.

"You're Ryoma Echizen's teammate, right?" She said, looking up at Momo with large purple eyes.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Why?"

"He didn't tell you what happened with that Kento kid, right?" She smiled up at him.

Momo raised an eyebrow. "No, he didn't. How did you know that?"

She smiled more broadly. "Do you want to know what happened?"

"Yeah," Momo said, kind of confused. _Who was this girl?_

"Ryoma was standing there," she pointed to one of the machines, "And that Kento guy came up to him and started loud mouthing about how he only lost because of an injury or something. Ryoma just ignored him, so Kento got really angry and shoved him."

Momo grimaced, getting angry again.

"Kento yelled some other stuff, then Ryoma said something else, I didn't hear what, but it must have made Kento furious, because he grabbed Ryoma by the arm and pulled him over to the trees. As they went, I saw him hit Ryoma once or twice, I think."

She looked up at Momo. "So are you all filled in?"

Momo wasn't listening. He was so mad that he was tempted to go and find Kento and beat him up again. He looked around, hoping to see that jerk's face. But he didn't.

The girl smiled and walked away.

Momo got a can of soda, drank it in a few gulps, then crushed it in his fist. _That bastard, thinking he can take revenge on Ryoma, just because he's small. If I'd beat him, or anyone else on the team beat him, he wouldn't have even __thought__ of revenge. _

As he approached the court where his friend was playing, he heard much cheering and screaming. The other player was walking off of the court, head bowed in defeat. Ryoma was heading toward their bench a small smirk on his face. His victory smirk.

_Well, at least he won. That's something you never need to worry about with Ryoma. No matter what, he'll always-._

A few feet from the bench, Momo felt someone behind him. He turned and saw a tennis racket swinging right towards his face. He didn't have time to react, but someone else did. A red racket intercepted the deadly one, stopping it before it reached its destination.

Momo froze. The other team members froze. Kento, wielding the racket aimed at Momo, froze. Ryoma, bearer of the racket that stopped Kento's, stood still for a second, then straightened. He pulled back his racket, putting it over his shoulder. He reached up and took Kento's, holding it in front of the other's face.

"I don't ever want to see you again, except on the court." Ryoma's voice was level, as though he was talking about the weather. But his eyes were giving Kento their coldest demon glare. Kento shivered. "Got it?"

He tapped the racket on Kento's nose, a little harder then necessary.

Kento nodded, looking terrified.

"Good." Ryoma pushed the racket at Kento, who then ran away.

Ryoma turned to Momo. They stared at each other for a minute, then Ryoma said, "We're even."

Momo waited a second. "Fine," he said with a smile. They clasped hands. Then Momo said, "We should do something about your wrist."

Ryoma looked up at Momo, looking slightly confused. "There's nothing wrong with it."

Momo burst out laughing. He put his arm around Ryoma's shoulders and led the boy towards the first aid building, Ryoma protesting all the way.

Back at the bench, Eiji sighed dejectedly and put the necessary coins into Fuji's outstretched hand.

The End.

………………………………………………………….

This was a kind of random, no point fic that I just decided to write. I wanted to be able to say I was an author on here, and I didn't really have time to do a good story, so this is what I got. Anyway. I just recently got into Prince of Tennis, so I probably messed up some personalities or tennis rules but oh well. Please review, even if it's to tell me that this story is stupid and/or bad. Any and all are accepted! Thanks a lot!


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